Va. Beach family scammed via Craigslist ad

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Someone scammed a Virginia Beach family out of hundreds of dollars on Craigslist, and now they have no place to go.

The family of three went to the online advertising site in search of room to rent. They paid the money to move in only to find out the person who rented the home didn’t own it. Now, Kurtis Dorsett and his family may have no place to call home.

“We literally had $60 in our name ’cause we put all we had in that room now,” said Dorsett. “Now we have nothing.”

It all started when Dorsett and his wife posted an ad looking for a room on Craigslist. They got a fast reply from a man named Ron Turlington.

“This guy called and told us he had a room for $550,” said Dorsett. “We went to look at everything, and it seemed legit.”

Dorsett said he paid for the room, but on Wednesday when he and his family tried to move in, they found another man, James Temple, renting out the same room.

“I had to go in the truck and sit down for a few minutes and work up the nerve to call my wife and tell her it was scam,” said Dorsett.

Temple said he paid a $1,000 for the room from Turlington, and he said even more people showed up to move in.

“He was renting out the room multiple times,” said Temple. “People started showing up later wednesday afternoon to move into the room I had moved in. They also had paid him $500 or $1,000.”

The real homeowner also showed up and said the person who rented the rooms was his painter and was not authorized to rent out the home.

“It just sunk in that I’ve been duped out of pretty much all of next month’s income, and I have Clark, who I am responsible for,” said Temple.

Clark is Temple’s service dog who alerts him to when he’s about to have seizure. Both Temple and Dorsett are out of money, and say they have until Sunday to find a new place to stay.

“He’s actually preying on people who can’t afford to lose what they are paying him, it’s all they have,” said Temple.

“My job as a father is to take care of my family, and I can’t do that when someone scams me out of my money,” said Dorsett.

Temple filed a police report, and police will be looking into this case. 10 On Your Side could not reach the acutal owner of the home.